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GOP tax cut: Small biz boon or loophole for rich and Trump?

10/04/2017

Associated Press

Topics:

Tax and Budget Reform

“That’s not a very targeted way to benefit most small businesses,” said John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business Majority. The proposed rate cut wouldn’t help most small companies, he said, because the top current rate of 39.6 percent is paid by less than 2 percent of them.

Get Started: Tax plan gets mixed small business reception

10/02/2017

AP (Hosted)

Topics:

Tax and Budget Reform

The Small Business Majority said the plan would not help most small companies.

“The current top rate is paid by less than 2 percent of pass-through business owners. Nearly 9 in 10 businesses that pass through their income already pay at the 25 percent rate or less,” said the group’s CEO, John Arensmeyer.

Small Business Owner Asks Congress to Keep Obamacare

As a small business owner, I'm disappointed that Sen. Heller cosponsored the latest effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

The ACA has been essential to the success of many entrepreneurs like me, and replacing it with a sub-par plan would be detrimental to the small business community.

Before the passage of the ACA, I had trouble finding health insurance because I was continuously denied due to my pre-existing conditions. But the ACA has been a Godsend. My consistent and reliable coverage has allowed me to remain healthy and completely focused on my small...

Small biz trade groups cautiously favor tax reform

09/29/2017

Tire Business

Topics:

Tax and Budget Reform

One association, the Small Business Majority (SBM), claims the proposed changes miss the mark when it comes to small business owners, very few of whom would benefit from reductions in the top individual income tax rates.

On the other hand, John Arensmeyer, CEO of the SBM, pointed out that cutting the top individual tax rate to 35 percent from 39.6 percent and the top pass-through rate to 25 percent would primarily help Wall Street hedge fund managers and wealthy lawyers rather than small businesses.

"It is a myth that top individual tax rates adversely harm Main Street...

Steve Mnuchin tried to bury a number that tells you whom Trump's tax plan is really for

09/29/2017

Business Insider

Topics:

Tax and Budget Reform

But under Trump's proposal, Jones wouldn't pay any more than 25%. As the advocacy group The Small Business Majority notes, only about 4% of "small businesses" in this country pay a tax rate of 28% or higher for their so-called pass-through businesses. So they get a tax cut, while everyone else gets nothing. No change.

Association Health Plans Won’t Cure What Ails Small Businesses

09/28/2017

Morning Consult

Topics:

Healthcare

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) may be a doctor, but he obviously doesn’t have the cure for what ails small businesses. During a discussion on health care policy in his home state, Paul said President Donald Trump is likely to legalize association health plans on the federal level, which would allow more groups of similar businesses to band together to purchase insurance. Paul claims this would allow small businesses to negotiate lower rates and insure more people, but what he and others who support this idea fail to understand is that these plans would actually do the opposite.

Trump's base may have won Alabama, but the Goldman guys won the battle over his tax plan

09/28/2017

Business Insider

Topics:

Tax and Budget Reform

People looking at the numbers, like Small Business Majority Founder & CEO John Arensmeyer, disagree:

"...cutting the top individual rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent and the top pass-through rate to 25 percent will help very few small business owners. It is a myth that top individual tax rates adversely harm Main Street small businesses. In fact, the current top rate is paid by less than 2 percent of pass-through business owners. Nearly 9 in 10 businesses that pass through their income already pay at the 25 percent rate or less . Instead, this proposal would primarily...

Paid Family and Medical Leave: By the Numbers

09/27/2017

Center for American Progress

Topics:

Family Medical Leave Insurance, Workforce Issues

Small businesses support paid leave

This support among small-business owners is growing. In 2013, a similar poll found that 45 percent of small-business owners supported proposals to create a publicly administered paid family and medical leave program.

Scientific Opinion Poll: Lack of Access to Child Care Holds Small Businesses Back

09/27/2017

Home Business Magazine

Topics:

Workforce Issues

A scientific opinion poll released today found many small business owners struggled to access affordable child care, and a majority of small employers favor the expansion of federal programs to help low- and moderate-income families afford child care.

The telephone survey, conducted by Public Policy Polling on behalf of Small Business Majority, found 36 percent of small business owners who are parents say lack of access to affordable, high-quality child care was a barrier to starting their business. Conversely, 29 percent of business owners with children (and 34 percent of women)...

By age 3, inequality is clear: Rich kids attend school. Poor kids stay with a grandparent

09/26/2017

The Washington Post

Topics:

Workforce Issues

Thirty-six percent of small business owners say lack of access to child care was a major barrier to starting a business, according to a survey of 500 randomly selected small business owners published Monday by Small Business Majority, an advocacy group.

Opinion: Bipartisan Healthcare Proposal a Step in the Right Direction for Small Businesses

09/26/2017

The Metropreneur

Topics:

Healthcare

This year has been a scary one for the more the 900,000 Ohioans who have received health coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the roughly 38,000 local small business owners and solo entrepreneurs who depend on the marketplace for quality, affordable health insurance. Between dogged attempts to repeal the ACA without an adequate replacement plan, to President Donald Trump’s inability to commit to making federal payments that subsidize insurance for low-income individuals, the ACA marketplaces are less stable than they were just 12 months ago. Now, more than ever, we...

LETTER: Hoping Murkowski resists repeal

09/26/2017

Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman

Topics:

Healthcare

As a small business owner, I hope that Senator Murkowski will oppose this latest effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The ACA has been essential to the success of many entrepreneurs like me, and replacing it with a sub-par plan would be detrimental to the small business community.

Before the passage of the ACA, I was struggling to provide insurance for my employees and my family because our insurance costs were escalating at an alarming rate. But after the law passed, our rates began to stabilize, and I continued to provide a small group plan for our employees even...

Don’t leave small businesses behind in reform plan

09/25/2017

The Hill

Topics:

Tax and Budget Reform

As President Donald Trump and congressional leadership stump for tax reform, it is becoming increasingly clear they do not understand why most small businesses will not benefit from drastically slashed corporate tax rates.

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) tax blueprint, for example, calls for reducing the corporate rate to a flat 20 percent because he believes this will help small employers.

President Trump, meanwhile, has floated a maximum corporate rate of 15 percent, saying recently that he intends to “dramatically reduce the tax rate for America’s small businesses,...

ACA stability requires a bipartisan effort

09/22/2017

Colorado Springs Business Journal

Topics:

Healthcare

This year has been a rocky one for the more than 169,000 Coloradans who receive health coverage through Connect for Health Colorado, including the roughly 37,000 local small business owners and solo entrepreneurs who depend on the marketplace for quality, affordable health insurance. Between dogged Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act without an adequate replacement plan, and President Donald Trump’s inability to commit to making federal payments that subsidize insurance for low-income individuals, the ACA marketplaces are less stable than they were just 12 months ago. Now...

A Tale Of 2 States: How California And Texas May Fare Under GOP Health Plan

09/21/2017

NPR

Topics:

Healthcare

MARK HERBERT: It would be massively destabilizing to the ability of small employers to attract talent. It would be very difficult for entrepreneurs and self-employed folks to access some level of coverage.

Uncertainty Over Health Care’s Future Hobbles Entrepreneurs

09/21/2017

California Healthline

Topics:

Healthcare

“So it would be massively destabilizing to the ability of small employers to attract talent, it would be very difficult for entrepreneurs and self-employed folks, to access some level of coverage,” said Mark Herbert, California director for the Small Business Majority. “There’s no way that you can remove those sorts of dollars out of our local communities and not see some sort of economic impact on small businesses.”

More Coloradans than ever insured, report finds, but Senate still targeting ACA

09/19/2017

Real Vail

Topics:

Healthcare

Small business groups also oppose efforts to repeal the ACA.

“Since U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham remain determined to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it is once again necessary to remind lawmakers that the ACA has greatly benefited America’s small businesses,” said Small Business Majority founder and CEO John Arensmeyer. “One in five ACA marketplace participants in 2014 was a small business owner or self employed. We must also remember the countless solo entrepreneurs with pre-existing conditions who were able to launch their own businesses because...

The simple way to tell whether Trump’s tax plan is for the ‘little guy’ or the 1 percent

09/19/2017

The Washington Post

Topics:

Tax and Budget Reform

“Small businesses get used as a smokescreen to help the wealthy,” says John Arensmeyer, head of Small Business Majority, a network of 55,000 small-business owners. He says the proposed change would mainly help hedge funds and celebrity consultants.